Frozen Over
by Dog Food
Summary: (Apocalypse AU) When ice and snow engulf the world, the survivors head underground. Anna is a completely ordinary child of the apocalypse, never knowing of a life above the ground. But when a beautiful stranger offers her a glimpse into a strange new world, Anna learns that she may not be so ordinary after all. And the stranger, well, she's nothing short of an angel. (Elsanna)
1. Blue is the Warmest Color

_"Soup and roast will be served in the mess hall in thirty minutes."_

Loud, blaring.

_"Non-essential employees must report five minutes prior."_

Constant, annoying.

_"Thank you and have a functional day."_

Cold, distant.

Static fills the air for a couple moments, and then silence. Anna breathes a sigh of relief and slams her head against the table. Her face is covered in grease and her hair is pulled back into pigtails. She is content for a moment, the rancid scent of gasoline – which manages to somehow smell tantalizingly sweet – filling her nostrils, her fingers gripping the cool metal of a wrench.

"What are you doing?"

Anna shoots up, grimacing. The moment is over.

"I was just – "

"Not doing your work." A large man with a walrus-shaped mustache glares down at Anna. She grins sheepishly at him. Kai is her supervisor, and it's just the two of them working the mechanic's room. He's gruff and loud, but Anna has come to think of him as a sort of father figure. While the frown rarely leaves his face, he's never actually punished her for her often lazy demeanor. And she's heard horror stories about some of the other supervisors in Underground 6.

"Sorry, Kai, I'm on it." Anna lifts the wrench and stares down at the work in front of her. Her eyebrows crease together and she rubs her temple with the end of the rusty tool. "Uh…" She glances back at Kai with another grin. "So… what exactly was I supposed to be doing again?"

Kai's facial expression doesn't change. Instead, he plops down across from her and takes the mangled object Anna has spent the last fifteen minutes staring at into his large, competent hands. "This RWD is broken."

Anna blinks. That much was clear to her. The Required Wrist Device – a large sheet of metal that covers the length of one's arm, from the wrist to the elbow – is normally thin and curved with a touchscreen capable surface. The RWD in front of them, on the other hand, is twisted into some unrecognizable shape, with blackened ends and a musty smell emitting from it.

"Uh, yeah…" Anna says slowly. "I mean, I know it's an RWD. And I know it's broken. I just, well, I don't know _what _to do about it. It looks like it got burned or something and I don't really think you can fix something like this… I mean, I've never seen anything this bad before. Can't we just issue the user a new one?"

"Only one RWD per user," Kai says, reciting the rules. They are mandatorily issued to everyone on their tenth birthday and must be worn at all times. Anna is wearing hers now, and she can see the glint of light that reflects off of Kai's. Anna has no idea what happens to people who lose or break their RWD. She's never heard of something like that happening before. They're necessary to daily life in Underground 6. The RWD provides the database with everyone's whereabouts, as well as monitors their vitals, provides communication between individuals, as well as a host of other functions.

Anna shrugs, defeated. "Well, if they can't get a new one – "

"Then we have to fix this one." He places the device back in front of her. Anna frowns. He says it so simply, as if it's an easy thing to do. Anna groans and drops her head again. She's no good at this stuff. She's _never _been good at putting things together. In fact, she's never really been good at anything. That's probably why the Test stuck her here, in the least desirable occupation, where all the rejects without any skills go.

Anna's eyebrows knit together. No, that's not true. Kai's a true genius when it comes to mechanics. He can see just how the cogs go together to create something truly beautiful. He's probably already figured out just how to take this mangled lump of metal and turn it back into a working RWD in no time. Anna is just his hopeless recruit, who comes to work every morning because she has to, who leaves each night having added nothing of value to Underground 6's growing need of working machinery.

"I don't belong here," Anna mutters. And then she jumps up and claps her hand to her mouth, realizing too late that she said that out loud. She has to belong here. She _does_ belong here. Whatever the Test decides is always right. And, worst of all, it's permanent and uncontestable. Not reveling in the occupation that has been chosen for you… that's like blasphemy.

"The Test thinks you do," Kai growls. "So that means you're going to work." He passes her a tool she's never handled before. "And if you don't finish before mealtime, you'll just have to skip going to the mess hall today and work some more."

"What?" Anna says, just as her stomach screams in protest. She accidentally presses down on a button on the tool, and fire bursts out of it. Anna jumps and drops the burning tool. It lights the table on fire and Anna squeals, falling backwards off of her stool and landing on her butt on the cold, hard ground. Kai jumps back. He frantically turns around, searching for something to stop the fire.

"Oh, oh gosh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I don't even know what happened! There's a button on the tool and I pressed it and everything just got really hot and I dropped it and – " The flames rise, licking the ceiling. "I've got it!" Anna rips her shirt off and covers the fire. She begins beating at the flames wildly with her arms. As the fire begins to settle down, she jumps up and sits on the remaining ashes. Steam billows up around her. The heat is searing, but adrenaline and determination dull her senses.

When Kai finally finds the fire extinguisher, all he can see is a film of smoke. In the next moment, Anna is covered in white foam and the smoke dispenses. Anna slides off the table and shakes herself off, coughing. She blinks a couple times and picks up her shirt, which is merely a rag the size of her hand now. The table has a large scorch mark on it, but otherwise remains unharmed.

"Uh, I'll replace your table," Anna says, "and everything that was on it."

Kai just shakes his head. "You've got fifteen minutes to get to the mess hall," he says, dejected. "Why don't you go back to your unit and clean yourself up. I think you're done for the day."

"O-Oh." Anna watches Kai for a while. His face gives nothing away. He doesn't look at Anna or the table. Instead, he stares at the fire extinguisher in his hand, an indecipherable look on his face. "Okay…"

* * *

Anna slips into a new shirt. Her attire is shades of grey, the issued color of all repair services. Her unit is in cell 12, a less populated area of Underground 6. Her room is a twelve by twelve square space, holding a bed, dresser, and desk. The adjoining room is a bathroom, with just enough room to hold a toilet, shower, and sink. The water only runs at designated minutes and each unit is supplied with an hour's worth of electricity a day.

Unfortunately, the water in her unit is not running now, so Anna has to leave with ash covering her hair and face. With a burnt smell still lingering on her skin, Anna can't help but flash back to the fire she caused and the look on Kai's face as he sent her away. The frown is still on her face, her eyes downcast, as she exits her unit.

Normally, Anna doesn't run into anyone in the narrow halls of cell 12. But today, as she steps out of her door, she knocks into something hard. For the second time that day, Anna falls flat on her behind with an unceremonious groan.

"Hey!" She looks up, a flash of anger crosses her face. Right now is not the time to mess with Anna, she's already in a bad enough mood.

But her eyes immediately soften as she registers just what – or, actually, _who _– she ran into. A tall, slim figure stands over her, with a messy blonde braid draped over a slender shoulder, and icy blue eyes looking down at her with such _warmth_. Anna opens her mouth, fishing for something to say, but immediately closes it again.

"I'm sorry," the woman says, reaching out a small hand. Anna takes it, and blushes at the softness of her skin, as well as the strength of her grip. The coolness of her fingers is refreshing from the unbearable heat Anna had just experienced. She allows the beautiful stranger to pull her up, still incapable of speech. She stumbles forward slightly and finds herself only inches from the pale features of the woman in front of her. Those eyes. Those_ lips. Those freckles. _She spots them, lightly scattered across her cheeks – almost like constellations on a clear night sky – nothing like Anna's own messy freckles. She feels her cheeks engulfing in a red glow. Her eyes dart away from the stranger's face, unable to function under the intense gaze.

"Oh, no, _I'm _sorry," Anna finally manages to choke out. And once she starts, she can't seem to stop. "I wasn't looking where I was going, cause I was sorta in a bad mood, and no one ever comes down here usually. Not that you're a no one, cause you're not. You're definitely a someone. Not even just a someone. You're more like… like an angel. Wait, what?"

The stranger giggles, covering her mouth with curled fingers. Anna beams as she realizes that _she's _the reason that beautiful chime is escaping this woman's lips. Oh gosh, her lips. Anna forces herself not to stare at them as the woman drops her hand, but she can't ignore the gorgeous smile that now sits there.

"Well, I guess we're both sorry," she says. "And I guess we both weren't expecting anyone else to be gracing their presence in these usually empty corridors."

"Oh, yeah, well, I live here," Anna says, motioning to her door – with the faded number 12.3 on it. "But I don't think I've seen you around here before. And I'd definitely remember you. I mean, if I saw you here. I'm good with faces, is what I'm saying. Not because you're incredibly gorgeous. Which you are, but that's not why I'd remember you. Objectively, you're gorgeous. So, it's something that you probably already know…"

The static of the PDA system fills the air, and Anna has never been happier for an announcement. She presses her lips together, effectively shutting up.

_"The mess hall doors will be closing in five minutes. All non-essential employees must report within five minutes. Thank you and have a functional day."_

The woman's eyes slide up and down Anna's body. It sends a shiver up Anna's spine. "You're a mechanic." It's not a question. At first, Anna thinks it's her grey wardrobe that gives it away, but she freezes as she remembers she's covered in ash and grease. "You better get down to the mess hall."

"R-Right," Anna says. Her eyes wander down to the woman's clothes, lingering – despite her inward protests – on her chest. It's a beautiful light blue dress that seems to sparkle under the dull, flickering lights of the corridor. Blue. Anna is struggling to remember what occupation that color corresponds to.

But before she can figure out if this woman is essential or not, the stranger tilts her head towards Anna and says, "Perhaps we'll run into each other again."

"Y-Yeah." Anna watches as the blonde woman walks away, the opposite direction from where Anna herself is heading. Her hips sway in a confident strut that leaves Anna biting her lip as she trails her figure with wide eyes. Most of her skin is bare and flawless and… _bare._ Her arms are completely free of any article of clothing. She's not wearing an RWD. Anna's eyes widen as she realizes what that means.


	2. It's Kind of a Funny Story

"Omigoshomigoshomigoshomigosh – "

"Oh – my – gosh – _what?_" Kristoff, a burly blonde, yells across the table, no longer able to hide his frustration. Anna has been in a catatonic state – or, at least, Kristoff would have preferred catatonic over this – ever since she met up with him in the mess hall. The girl had arrived with only seconds to spare before they closed the doors, and when she caught up to her best friend in the food line, she had been incapable of saying anything more than, "Omigosh, Kristoff!" And, like a broken record, she just kept repeating, "Omigosh" for the rest of the evening.

Kristoff can't take much more of this.

"I swear, Anna, I'm about to drown you in your soup if you say the words 'oh', 'my', or 'gosh' ever again."

"Oh – " The word catches in her throat. In a very visible struggle, Anna manages to choke it back down. "Uh, sorry, I just…"

"Got excited there, feisty pants?" Kristoff manages a grin, along with a very prominent eye roll.

"Um, yeah," Anna says, giggling. She's barely touched her food, as if that wasn't a strange enough feat. Kristoff watches her with narrowed, concerned eyes. His best friend has never missed or skipped _any_ offered meal. He pushes his own plate away, suddenly not hungry.

"You wanna tell me what's going on?" he asks, folding his arms.

Anna fiddles with her spoon, making ripples in her soup. "Um…" She tucks a stray strand of hair behind her ear. When she had first arrived, she'd been practically bursting to tell Kristoff everything that had happened to her. Now, her stomach is crawling with so many nerves that she's afraid if she opens her mouth, it might not be words that come out.

"And what's up with, uh, the new look you've got going on?" Kristoff continues. "Not that I'm not used to seeing you covered in grease, but jeez, did you fall into a puddle of the stuff or what?"

Anna pouts and rubs at her face. She remembers the beautiful stranger from earlier and groans. She had seen Anna like this. Anna had babbled on and said words that she'd prefer to forget ever came out of her mouth. Instead, she focuses on the smile that graced the stranger's face. Of the beautiful laugh that sounded like a song. Of the swaying hips of her retreating figure…

"What's blue?" Anna finally asks. It's the question that's been eating away at her ever since seeing that girl's dress. Anna has always been terrible at remembering what is what, but now it's even more frustrating that she can't figure out what this woman's occupation is.

"It's a color," Kristoff says slowly, as if his friend has had a mental break and he's trying to coax her out of it.

Anna slaps her hand on the table. "No, doofus, I _know_ it's a color! What _occupation _does it represent? You know, like how I'm grey and you're green." Kristoff works in delivery, making his color scheme various shades of green.

"Blue?" Kristoff strokes his chin, thinking. "Isn't blue medical? You should know better than anyone, Anna, you spend the most time in the Pillars."

Anna puffs her cheeks. "I do not! I get injured a lot, but I _never _go to the Pillars!" She sits up straighter like she's proud of this fact. The truth is, the Pillars puts Anna on edge. It's full of needles and sick people and… well, painful memories. But now that Anna thinks about it, she does remember seeing a lot of blue back in the days she used to visit the Pillars regularly. The days before Kristoff and Kai, and certainly before that woman worked there.

"She's a healer," Anna whispers to herself, stroking her own cheek thoughtfully. And then, louder, "No wonder I haven't seen her before! I _never_ go to the Pillars!"

"Seen who?" Kristoff interjects.

Anna continues her train of thought, completely oblivious to Kristoff's question. "And a _medical _career. That's, like, way up there. She probably lives in cell three or somewhere fancy like that…"

"Who lives in cell three?" Kristoff asks, this time louder.

"Then what was she doing in cell twelve? People like her never venture that far… well, then again, there aren't really people like _her _– "

"Anna!" Kristoff yells, making the girl jump. He makes sure her teal eyes are locked onto his brown ones before he finally says, as calmly as he can manage, "What are you _talking_ about?"

Anna fiddles with one of her pigtails before finally saying, "I met a girl."

Kristoff leans back, fully taking Anna in. He glances around them. The mess hall is full of tables and people, all laughing and talking and enjoying their meals. There are a couple other people sitting at their table, but Kristoff and Anna are situated at the far end, hopefully away from prying ears. Kristoff turns himself further away from the other people at their table. And then he focuses back on Anna. "What kind of 'I met a girl' are we talking here?"

Anna shuffles her feet. She fixates on her soup. She watches it swirl around, little bits of celery and beef floating to the surface. "I'm not sure yet," Anna finally says.

"You know how the President feels about… that sort of stuff," Kristoff says carefully. "I mean, you can't keep a population going that way."

"I know how reproduction works," Anna snaps, anger flaring. It dissipates almost as quickly as it came. She sinks further into herself and groans. "I'm sorry, Kristoff. I didn't mean… I'm just… I'm so confused." And then, before she can stop herself, she keeps talking. "I met this girl and she's _so _gorgeous. I can't even help it. I mean, everything about her, you don't even know. Maybe that's shallow? I don't know. I don't even know her. Well, I know she's a healer and I know she's obviously essential and I know that she's missing her RWD and – "

"Wait, what?" Kristoff's eyes are wide. "She's missing her RWD?"

"Yeah!" Anna nods eagerly, glad they're skipping over the whole confusing gay thing and moving onto the other important discussion point Anna has planned. "I was at work today and there was this really messed up RWD that I was supposed to fix, only I didn't know how, I mean, it was _so _messed up! I don't even know how something gets that bad. _I _couldn't have even ruined my RWD that hard if I tried! It was black and had holes in it and was all misshapen… It smelled really weird, too!

"Anyway, when I ran into that – that girl… um, well, I noticed that she wasn't wearing one. An RWD. And she's _definitely _not under ten, I mean, wow, you should have seen her – uh, ahem, well, uh, she's just… older than ten… And, so, uh, th-that one I was supposed to fix… it was probably hers."

Silence falls between them. Kristoff stares at her with a concerned expression on his face. Anna looks away, fiddling with her pigtails again, biting her lip. Finally, Kristoff leans forward, so he's incredibly close to Anna. The sudden disappearance of distance makes Anna jump slightly. But then she's leaning forward, too, in order to hear Kristoff's whispered words: "Something's not right, Anna."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

Kristoff, once again, glances around them to check for eavesdroppers. When he's positive no one is listening, he continues, "Weird things are going on. I've been getting strange deliveries… and someone working in medicine breaks her RWD beyond repair? Have you _ever_ heard of something like that happening before, Anna?"

Anna shakes her head. "What kind of strange deliveries?"

Kristoff shrugs. "At first it seemed like nothing. Just really small packages with really specific delivery times and locations. But they kept happening. And I never met the person sending the package or who I was delivering them to. They'd just appear in my bag, so I assumed they were approved, but… Now we've got someone in medical, without an RWD, snooping around cell 12?"

"She wasn't snooping," Anna says, frowning. She flashes back to her memory of the event. The woman had acted casual and friendly. Wouldn't someone who was doing illegal activity act a little more… suspiciously? Or at least be curt. The woman had stayed and politely listened to Anna blabber on…

"What else would she be doing, Anna? There's nothing over there! Have you ever seen colors besides grey, green, and brown in cell 12?"

Anna thinks. She grimaces when she realizes she hasn't. She searches her brain for some excuse for the beautiful stranger. "Well, maybe she had essential stuff to do there."

Kristoff snorts. "Yeah, without an RWD? How would she even get her orders without one? Right now, according to the database, that girl is dead. And yet you saw her walking around."

"I guess that really does make her an angel," Anna says, not able to suppress her grin.

* * *

Anna is at work bright and early the next morning. Normally she struggles to wake up in the morning, but since she couldn't sleep that night, she rolled out of bed as soon as her RWD struck positive one. Anna works from positive two to positive ten – units lock between the hours of negative twelve to negative one. If you aren't in your unit during those hours, the Blacks patrolling the corridors will find you and punish you for breaking curfew. Units open at positive one for a meal in the mess hall, and then a second meal is served at positive eleven. If you aren't in your unit by the end of positive twelve, you'll get locked out. Since your RWD always knows where you are – and that information is hooked into the database – there's really nowhere to hide. The Blacks will see that you're out of your unit in the negative hours and they _will _find you.

But there was that stranger heading further down the corridors of cell 12 near the end of the positive hours, and _she _didn't have an RWD to track her… Anna spent the entire night wondering where that girl was now. Did she ever get back to her unit, or did she spend the night free from prying eyes, searching for something Anna can only imagine is hiding away in the recesses of the corridors. The thoughts consumed Anna until she gave up on the idea of sleep entirely and spent the rest of the night debating whether she should try to break out of her own unit and search for signs of the mysterious angel.

She thought about it until positive one, when her door unlocked with a _'click!' _and there was no longer a locked door to debate breaking out of. But that was the first time Anna had ever considered leaving her room in the negative hours. For the first time in forever, as she waits impatiently for Kai to arrive at work, Anna is angry with the rules put in place by the Underground systems. She feels trapped and suffocated in the place she's been calling home for eighteen years. And she doesn't like the unsettling feeling this uncertainty has placed in her stomach.

"_Work begins in five minutes. All employees without otherwise specified instructions should now be at their designated work location. Thank you and have a functional day."_

Anna rolls her eyes. _Have a functional day. _She hears that farewell at least five times a day. She's beginning to get sick of it. That's what Underground 6 is. It's _functional. _It has to be, after all. After the apocalypse, resources have been dwindling at a steady progression. Anna wasn't alive for life outside of the Underground, but her parents used to tell her stories. And they learned in school all about the history of Arendelle – the place on the surface, now considered nothing more than an icy wasteland.

It happened over fifty years ago. Her parents were children for it. Most of their own memories of life on the surface were passed down from their parents. But when Anna closes her eyes, she believes she can _see _Arendelle, almost as if she once lived there. It was a world with beautiful valleys, oceans, fjords, and the greenest grass that housed the most magnificent castles. It was an abundant and fruitful trading port. Anna once joked with Kristoff that if he lived in Arendelle, he'd spend his days weaving clothes out of the green grass and delivering ice to the warm citizens.

"_Ice?_" Kristoff exclaimed, incredulous. "Why ice?"

"Because," Anna began, giggling, "what's the one thing a summertime trading port needs? You'd be the guy braving the cold mountains to bring us ice for our warm water!"

Kristoff scoffed at that. "You're an idiot. Who needs ice? Arendelle's problem, if you ask me, was that it had too much of the stuff."

Kristoff wasn't wrong. After centuries of enjoying the warmth and sun, Arendelle's first winter hit. Never having experienced a storm of that caliber, the destruction had been devastating. Crops wilted, people grew ill, and the fjord froze over. Just as the citizens began to renovate and heal, another storm hit. For a decade, the storms raged on. Many people died, almost everything on the surface was destroyed, and Arendelle became a kingdom of isolation with the channels of water frozen over, disconnecting them from the rest of the world.

Finally, one man rose up and gave the people salvation. His name was Hans Westegard. He was a handsome young man of twenty-three at the time. Skilled with a sword, charismatic, and cunning. He led a team of brains and builders to create the Underground system that Anna has been lucky to live in today. The people were shut away from the swirling storm outside and separated into Undergrounds – Anna was taught in school that there are twelve in all.

King Hans is still alive today. Nearly sixty-five years old now, he's rumored to live in Underground 1, where he rules over the entire system. He's appointed a President to act as his surrogate in each system. In Underground 6, they have President Derek Westegard. It isn't surprising that the King has thirteen sons (as he practices what he preaches – which is that reproduction is the key to repopulation), and almost all of them have been given a role of power within King Hans' Underground systems.

_Have a functional day. _That's the motto of the Underground systems. Anna can't complain. It's a necessity for the life they lead. But, for the first time in forever, Anna dreams of the life she could have led – in Arendelle, in the summer, swimming in oceans, running in the open fields, with her feet touching grass and her face shining in the sunlight…

"You're early."

And the moment's gone.

"You're late!" Anna responds, staring at Kai. He lets out a grunt, but otherwise his expression remains the same – a perpetual frown on his face. He sits across from her, a wrench in his tight grip. Anna searches him for the mangled RWD, but she can't find it. "Where's – "

"It's been fixed," he says before she can even finish her question.

"It's – what?"

"I fixed it after I dismissed you," he says.

Anna feels her face grow red at the reminder of how they left each other yesterday. "Oh, um…" She struggles to find the next words she wants to say. "Well, um, wh-who did, um…" She takes a deep breath, finding her resolve. "Who did the RWD belong to?"

Kai shrugs. "Just some idiot kid who thought playing with fire would be fun."

Once again, Anna winces at the reminder of her own failure yesterday. But the growing embarrassment doesn't stop her from pressing on. "A _fire_ did that? Come on, Kai! I, well… Just yesterday there was that fire and I had my arms all in there and my RWD is fine! Don't tell me that it was just some kid playing with fire. If that's enough to destroy a RWD like that, we'd have a dozen of them in here a day!"

Kai gives her a harsh glare. Anna recoils from his stare, pressing her lips together to keep down the whimper that's rising up her throat. "That's what I'm telling you," he growls. "Now, enough about yesterday's work. There's a pile of things that need repairing and if I don't see some real progress you'll be here _in the negative hours_ working. We're even farther behind schedule after yesterday's mishap."

That's enough to shut Anna up. The guilt and embarrassment tightens in her stomach and she stares at the table. Except now she's looking at the burn mark that she caused yesterday. She feels the tears well up, but she blinks them away. She can't cry in front of Kai. Instead, she takes a shaky breath and picks up her own wrench. Any further protests or questions she had disappear from her thoughts. She's not going to let Kai down today. For once in her damn life, she's actually going to do something right in this occupation, instead of leaving Kai to constantly clean up her mess.

* * *

Anna opens her eyes to the sterile ceiling of the Pillars. How exactly she ended up here, she can't be completely sure. She squints her eyes, forcing herself to dredge up the absolutely last memory that she has…

Well, it involved a wrench, that cursed burning tool, and an extremely slippery oil can.

Anna groans as she realizes just how badly she's screwed up… _again._ When the initial shock wears off, her body begins to ache. She tries to move, only to gasp as a sharp shock shoots up her side. Instead she continues to lie on her back, the hard bed of the Pillars beneath her, the white ceiling above her. She can't believe she's in the Pillars right now. This section of Underground 6 got its name for what it does – which is, for the most part, store and issue out pills to the sick. On top of that, the area houses long and thin rooms for patients that partition out of a wide hallway – giving a pillar-like effect.

Anna hasn't been to the Pillars since… She closes her eyes to shut out the memory. It's been nine years… and she vowed she'd never come back here. Any time Anna ever got sick or injured (which happened, to her dismay, quite a lot), she always managed to suffer silently through it or feign health until her strength returned.

Getting knocked out by a fireball and burning the entire right side of her body is something that even Anna can't fake herself out of. At least it wasn't her left arm, where her RWD is. She manages to turn her head to the side, surveying the damage. Her stomach does a flip as she sees her entire right arm and the thigh of her leg are covered in bandages that seep with a dark red liquid. The pain seems to come in an intense sting and then slowly taper out at indecipherable intervals, making her head woozy.

There's a light breeze as someone enters Anna's room, and she becomes painfully aware that she's naked, with nothing but a cloth covering her breasts and groin.

"Ah, you're awake." Anna's head flies into the air at the sound of that voice. _That voice. _She regrets that decision almost immediately, as she collapses back onto the bed with a sharp cry of pain. Tears stream down her face without her permission. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I frighten you?"

There's the light sound of footsteps, and then the familiar blonde braid fills Anna's vision as the angel that has been encompassing all of Anna's spare thoughts leans over her, checking her wounds. "It's you," is all Anna can manage to mumble. Her words come out garbled and she realizes that she's probably been ingested with painkillers while she was out cold.

That familiar chime of a laugh. Anna beams, despite the pain it causes her. "You're the mechanic. I didn't realize your profession is so dangerous."

"Yeah…" Anna's brain almost short-circuits. This gorgeous woman remembers her. Most likely because when they met she was covered in ash and grease – she probably still is – and she had been so incredibly awkward. She can feel whatever meds she was put on edging away. With renewed strength, and needing something to distract her from another wave of pain, she says, "Well, no, not really dangerous… I'm just really clumsy, I don't know how I ever ended up as a mechanic. Not that I think the Test was _wrong _or anything. Of course I don't… Besides I guess it wouldn't matter where I worked. I just kind of… attract danger, I guess."

"So I see." The woman leans back, done looking her over. Anna remembers just how little she's wearing and a bright blush covers her face. But she doesn't look away from those blue eyes, the eyes that trail up and down Anna's body before settling on her face. When the healer sees Anna staring back at her, she gives her a warm smile. Anna's blush only deepens.

"We're going to need to change your bandages soon," she tells her. Anna tries to nod, but everything goes black for a second and she stops. "Don't move." The woman puts a hand on her shoulder, lightly applying pressure there. Anna forgets to breathe. "You'll have to stay here a few days, but the burns aren't terrible. I'll give you some cream that you should rub on it twice daily and hopefully that'll take care of any scarring."

"Mmm," Anna moans. Her mind is on the hand that is still gripping her shoulder. She turns her head slightly, as much as she can force herself, to get a better view of the healer beside her. The woman has traded in her light blue dress for light blue scrubs, which she somehow manages to look gorgeous in. And Anna can see, on the hand that is now retreating from her shoulder, that she's wearing an RWD. Anna opens her mouth, but she doesn't know what to say. She just stares at the woman, wondering if it's her presence or the injury that is making her brain so fuzzy.

"Don't fall asleep," the healer murmurs. Anna opens her eyes – when had she even closed them? – to see the woman pulling a needle away from Anna's arm. Anna struggles to oblige the healer, but she can already see blackness creeping up the sides of her vision. Anna focuses on the beautiful woman above her. The lights make the blonde's hair gleam, like she's wearing a halo.

"Angel," Anna whispers.

"You just need to stay awake for a little bit longer," the woman urges. Anna nods. She doesn't take her eyes off the beautiful angel standing over her. She wants her to stay awake. The angel doesn't want Anna to fall asleep… She won't fall asleep. She can stay awake forever, drowning in those blue eyes… The healer reaches out again, lightly massaging Anna's shoulder. "Why don't you tell me just how you managed to end up in here?"

Anna tries to laugh – it comes out as a gurgle – at the memory. She fights through the haze caused by whatever the healer injected in her. She needs to stay awake, just for a little longer… And she's here, the angel is here, standing above her… She wants to know how Anna ended up in the Pillars… It takes a moment for Anna to remember how to speak. But when she can, she says, "Heh, well, it's kind of a funny story…"

* * *

**Oi! Hey folks! The amount of reviews/favorites/follows on my first fanfic have warmed my icy heart. I hope I exceed all the expectations you have of this fic. Otherwise, well, whoops. I was reading the ratings guide for this site and I realized I'm going to have to bump this from T to M... eventually. I'll try to keep it T for as long as I can, but if you think, at any point, that this should be rated M, feel free to yell and scream your enragement at my poor ability to rate things and I'll change it. I'll try to keep any author's notes concise and, you know, only put them in if I have important info for you guys. Minus this one, which is basically just an introduction since I guess people do that on here? Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! I aim to entertain, of course.**

**Be cool - Dog Food**


	3. Side Effects

_Elsa._

The beautiful stranger's name is Elsa.

_Elsa._

Anna smiles as she says the name over and over again – trying out different inflections – in her head. She spent most of her first and second days at the Pillars asleep or in a drug-induced haze, but she woke up on the third morning to the healer's soft crooning, and Anna finally got the opportunity to properly introduce herself and learn the name of the elusive woman she keeps running into.

The blonde woman is currently standing over her, a jar of cream in her small, capable hands. She's humming softly to herself as she unscrews the cap and dips a finger into the bottle. Anna bobs her head to the tune, silently musing over how adorable it is that the healer hums while she works. When Elsa raises her hand out of the jar, her index finger is dripping with a white liquid. Anna's eyes widen at the mental image that very action gives her and blushes.

Elsa tilts her head slightly and gives Anna an encouraging smile, misreading her patient's expression. "Don't worry," she says, "I promise I'll be gentle."

Anna just whimpers.

Her bandages, covered in a mix of crusty blood and dry skin, have been discarded into the trash. Her burn wounds are raw, red, and itchy. Elsa brushes her finger with the cool cream along Anna's thigh. She shivers at the touch, despite everything in her screaming to remain calm.

Slowly, with precision and skill, Elsa uses two fingers to rub the cream over Anna's wound – caressing her body, starting at her lower thigh and working her way up her side. Her hand briefly brushes against Anna's cloth-covered breast, causing the redhead to bite her lip in order to stop a sharp intake of breath from escaping. She grips the sheet of her bed with her left hand. It's taking everything in her not to start shaking or unconsciously spread her legs.

_I can't believe this is happening_, Anna thinks with an inward groan. _You're having a total lesbian freak-out while this gorgeous woman – _Elsa – _is just trying to do the regular healer things she does with _every _patient and _heal _you. Stop making this sexual, relax, and let Elsa do her –_

"Oh," Anna gasps, not able to contain the exclamation as Elsa's hands move back down, one gently cupping her behind, while the other brushes awfully close to…

"Are you alright?" Elsa asks as Anna rigidly sits upright, her face as red as her hair. The jerking action causes another gasp from the patient. This time she buckles over in pain, rather than arousal.

"Uh, y-yeah," Anna says. "I just… wow, um, i-it's…"

"The wound is still new, so you should expect some pain. But that's good, it means your nerves weren't damaged. And the itchiness just means it's healing." Elsa steps away from Anna, and the girl deflates at the loss of physical closeness. The blonde screws the cap on the jar of cream and places it by Anna's bedside table. "I'll leave this here for you. You should apply it once when you wake up in the morning and once before you go to sleep."

"You're not going to do it anymore?" Anna blurts out. Her eyes widen as she realizes she said that out loud. In a desperate bid to save herself, she adds, "I mean, since you're a healer and everything. I don't want to mess something up. I'm not really good at this sort of thing. Once I picked up a pen and the ink just squirted in my face! I might have picked it up a little roughly. And, also, well, I _might _have been chewing on it a little bit. Cause I was thinking really hard about something and I was writing a really important letter – it was for my parents – and I didn't want to mess up anything and I wanted to find all the right words to say and I guess I didn't notice how hard I was biting it so…"

Anna stares at her lap, fidgeting with her hands as she talks. But she immediately stops when she hears Elsa giggle. She looks up, hoping her face isn't red for once, but immediately feels the blood rush to her cheeks as she locks eyes with the blonde. She's giving Anna another one of those smiles that makes her heart pound so hard she's afraid it'll just stop working. Or rip out of her chest. She can't be completely sure.

"Your wounds are healed enough that we can let you go later today," Elsa explains. "Besides, it's a very easy process. If you really are worried that you might mess up, you can always ask a friend for assistance."

_I'd rather have you. _For once, Anna holds her tongue. She looks back at her hands, forcing herself to regain some semblance of self-control. When she feels like it's safe to speak, she says, "I'm healed enough to leave?" She looks back up at Elsa with wide eyes. She's not ready to go yet. She's not ready to leave this woman's presence. Anna has never wanted to stay at the Pillars this long before. But now, she'd take any illness to spend another day under the care of this healer.

Elsa nods. "I'll bandage you back up and we'll monitor you for a bit. But I'm confident you'll be walking out of here in a matter of hours." Elsa smiles down at her, and Anna realizes she's supposed to be happy about this announcement.

"Oh," Anna says, forcing a smile. "Well, that's really good." Elsa takes a box of bandages out of a drawer and begins unraveling them. With steady hands, she covers Anna's wounds – which begin on her side above her right breast and stretch down to nearly her knee – with the adhesive cloth.

"Unfortunately, you'll have to stop in before the units lock every night for someone to redress your wound. You can take the bandage off in the morning when you apply the cream. Just come by the Pillars before you go to bed at night. I don't think you should sleep with the wound open, just in case."

Anna smiles at the blonde healer. She still has to visit the Pillar. She'll still get to see this magnificent angel. "Well, if you think it's necessary…"

* * *

"Anna!"

Kristoff almost lurches forward to scoop Anna into his arms, but he resists at the last moment. Anna's glad, because she's still in considerable pain. It's just past positive eleven and Anna has finally been cleared to leave. Kristoff rushed over as soon as he could, prepared to escort Anna out of the Pillars.

"Hey, Kristoff," Anna say, wobbling. She's still getting the hang of walking after spending nearly three days confined to a bed.

"You're such an idiot," he says, looking at her with a pained expression. She's back in her usual grey clothes which hides her wounds, but Anna winces every once in a while when her body sways too far to the right. "I leave you alone for one second and you go and nearly burn yourself alive."

"It's not so bad," Anna says, and she takes a couple steps as if to prove her point. When she manages to walk the length of the room without any problems, she turns back around and grins at Kristoff. "See? Good as new! The healer here has magic hands."

"I'd like to think so."

Anna's head whips around as Elsa appears in the doorway. She's wearing a confident smirk – different than her usual smile – and it makes Anna go limp. She nearly falls, but catches herself on Kristoff, who strides forward with raised arms. When she regains control of her limbs, Anna gives a nervous giggle and pulls away from her friend. She looks anywhere but at the two other people in the room.

"You must be Kristoff… Anna's emergency contact." Elsa steps forward and shakes Kristoff's hand. Anna sneaks a glance at the pair of them. Kristoff is wearing an indecipherable look on his face. Elsa still has her smirk. It looks even more teasing and mysterious up close. Anna glances away again before she gets any ideas that make her stomach twist. She's painfully aware of how close Elsa is to her. Her arm brushes against Anna as she pulls away from Kristoff.

"Thanks for taking care of Anna," Kristoff says. His eyes drift towards the RWD on Elsa's arm. Anna's heart sinks as she remembers the conversation she had with him a few days ago. He knows exactly who this is. Not only that, but Anna had been so caught up just being in Elsa's presence, she hadn't even spared another thought to the whole RWD mystery.

"It's my job," Elsa says with the simplest of shrugs.

Kristoff gives a thin smile in return. He stares at the cyan coloring of her scrubs. "Right."

* * *

"I don't trust her."

"Kristoff!"

"What, Anna? Come on, you don't see it? You're too trusting of people!"

"Maybe you're not trusting enough! You don't even know her!"

"_You _don't even know her!"

"I spent, like, three whole days with her!"

"Oh, yeah? And did you guys talk? Did you have lots of deep, life-altering conversations?"

"I mean… we discussed… things."

"Do you even know her last name?"

"Sure! It's… Elsa… Healer…"

"Uh-huh. Her favorite color?"

"Blue! Like her eyes."

"Anna! You're being ridiculous! You run into this strange woman in cell 12 _without _an RWD on. Kai tells you that the broken RWD didn't even belong to her. And next second you're in the Pillars – which you had _just _told me you _never _go to – and _she's _your healer… Oh, and let's not forget, she's conveniently wearing her RWD again!"

Anna's cheeks are puffed and her eyes are narrowed as she shoots daggers in Kristoff's direction. He paces back and forth the length of Anna's unit as she sits on her bed, arms crossed in frustration. But she can't find anything to say to Kristoff's latest comment. As much as she hates to admit it, he has a point. She really doesn't know Elsa, as much as she'd like to. But anytime she tried to have a meaningful conversation at the Pillars, the words either got caught in her throat and she ended up coughing instead, or she started doing her nervous babble without giving Elsa a chance to even speak.

"It's almost negative twelve," Anna finally says, "so you should probably go before you get locked out of your unit."

Kristoff stops pacing and leans against the opposite wall. He sighs as he stares at Anna, who sits stiffly on her bed. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just worried about… about the way things look."

"You mean me and my obsession with someone I barely know," Anna whispers, fidgeting with her pigtails. She _knows _she shouldn't shiver at every innocent look some stranger shoots her. She _knows _she should be able to breathe when a healer dresses her wounds. But every look and every touch from this particular woman sends electricity up Anna's spine and, as hard as she's tried to suppress it, she can't stop the feelings from rising up inside her.

"No, Anna," Kristoff says, his voice much gentler. "I'm talking about something much, much bigger."

Anna drops her fingers from her hair and watches Kristoff. He's not looking at Anna anymore. He's moved his gaze to the floor and he's shifting his weight between the balls and heels of his feet. "What is it, Kristoff?" Her voice is soft, urging. When he finally meets her gaze, she can see the terror in his eyes.

"I've told you, strange things have been happening," he says.

Anna shakes her head. "It's more than that. I've never seen you so nervous. Are you… are you worried about something… bad happening? Something bigger than missing RWDs and unapproved deliveries. Something… involving Elsa?" Kristoff gives her a sad smile. It confirms Anna's fears. She speaks, calmly and slowly, putting his entire theory together. "You think she's planning something. And you think it's no accident that I ended up in the Pillars. She… She injected me with something while I was there. You're saying… it wasn't just medicine."

"I'm not saying that," Kristoff says, but his voice contradicts his statement.

"No, I am, but you're thinking it."

"Look," he begins, holding up his hands, "I'm just saying that a lot of suspicious stuff has been going on, and this Elsa person seems to be behind most of it."

"But why me?" Anna asks, her voice finally cracking.

Kristoff shrugs. "Because you walked out of your unit when no one was supposed to be in the cell. Because you weren't at the mess hall with everyone else. Because you saw her."

It makes sense. Anna wants to scream at Kristoff or slap him or cry, because it makes sense. Elsa never gave her a reason to trust her. Their very first circumstance of meeting was about as suspicious as they come, and yet she was too smitten to even register the woman wasn't wearing an RWD until later. The fact that Elsa was in cell 12 to begin with should have been incriminating enough, but being bare of the Required Wrist Device – the one thing that _every _person receives on their tenth birthday and is told to never, _ever _remove – was enough of a reason to go straight to the President.

And how convenient, as Kristoff said, that the very next day Anna gets sent to the Pillars after a decade of successfully avoiding the place, only for the very same beauty to be her healer. Not only that, but she suddenly was wearing her RWD again. Anna's pretty sure it isn't even possible to just _take off _your RWD. A special profession is dedicated to the RWD. The people tasked as RWD techs are the ones who deliver and attach your RWD to your left arm. They're the only ones who handle RWDs preregistration. Anna isn't even sure if _they _know how to take an RWD _off. _The devices aren't built that way. So, while Anna was mesmerized by her beauty, Elsa could have simply poisoned her and that'd be that. Anna's wound would probably get an infection while the poison would eat away at her from the inside and Elsa could just shrug and say, "Well, even the most professional of medical attention isn't always enough to save a life."

Anna would be dead, with no one the wiser to the imposter in their system.

But _why? _What could Elsa possibly be planning? A mass murder of Underground 6? She's a _healer_. The Test decided that Elsa is built to save lives, not destroy them. But Kristoff is right, Anna is too trusting. For all any of them know, Elsa isn't even a healer. If she can do amazing feats like perform a disappearing act with an RWD, why can't she steal clothing and impersonate a healer, too?

"Anna…" She snaps her head up. Kristoff is sitting next to her. When did he get there? He tugs at her arm. She's been itching her wound. How long has she been doing that? She didn't even notice. Anna chuckles. Maybe that's the poison kicking in. First she starts itching, then picking, and in a couple hours she'll be digging into her own insides without feeling a thing.

"You're wrong," Anna says quietly. She isn't sure who she's talking to, or really what she even means by the statement. She says it again, anyway. "You're wrong." And for a glorious moment, they're the truest words she's ever felt come out of her mouth.


	4. The King's Speech

"They've finally taken the bandages off."

It's been a week since Anna's release from the Pillars. She visited every night, as Elsa instructed, to rewrap her wound, but the blonde healer was never there. Instead, various other healers on duty took care of her. They didn't feel the same. Anna began dreading visits to the Pillars again. Without Elsa's calming – albeit, potentially life-threatening – presence, the clumsy girl quickly slipped back into her extreme dislike of the place. For Kristoff, this information just gave him another reason to suspect Elsa of foul play.

"Finally," he says as he takes a bite of his chicken. They're in the mess hall, at a largely unoccupied table. "How does the wound look?"

Anna lifts her shirt up a little bit so he can see. It's still pink, but it's only slightly irritated – it looks like it could be from rubbing the spot too hard – compared to the rest of Anna's fair, freckled skin. "So I don't need to go back to the Pillars anymore. I just have to keep applying cream every night and they said that'll prevent scarring."

"'They' as in...?"

Anna slouches in her seat. "Not her."

Kristoff frowns, but he holds back from making a remark. He watches Anna's features sink into the mopey face she's adopted whenever Elsa gets brought up in conversation these days. After the first five days and Anna felt completely fine – if not _healthier _since her stay in the Pillars – she finally managed to convince Kristoff that she hadn't been poisoned. But the burly blonde was still certain that the so-called healer wasn't to be trusted. Anna refused to commit to either side without definite proof. The topic of Elsa became a bitter point between them. All Anna wanted to do was see her again and find some answers, and all Kristoff wanted was to keep Anna as far away from the mysterious blonde as possible. So far, to Anna's dismay, Kristoff was winning. No matter how much time Anna spent in the very precious minutes she had completely to herself lurking in dark corridors or pacing the halls near the Pillars, she hadn't caught one sight of the elusive blonde since last week.

As happy as her best friend is about that fact, he can't help but feel a twinge of remorse whenever Anna's face falls into a pout. Kristoff tries to change the subject in order to spare them both from depression. "So, how's work?"

Anna brightens with a new story to tell. "Ooh, well, I finally learned how to use that burning tool thing without setting anything on fire! And Kai's been a lot less frowny since I started going back to work after... I was out for those couple days. I mean, he's still always frowning. But I can totally see a slightly smaller frown behind that big mustache of his. It's practically like a smile for him! He'll never admit it, but he definitely missed me."

"Well, work was probably pretty uneventful while you were gone," Kristoff says with a teasing grin. Somehow, it reminds Anna of Elsa's own smirk in the ways that it's _not _like her lopsided, confident grin. The redhead's smile falters, but she shakes the memory of the blonde woman away.

"I haven't set a single fire all week!" Anna says, putting her hands on her hips and throwing her nose into the air, as if this is a proud accomplishment.

"I'm pretty sure you broke a record for amount of fires per year in Underground 6," Kristoff says, chuckling. "All in the span of two days."

Anna sticks out her tongue. "It's Kai's fault for handing me a tool that _creates fire _without teaching me how to even use it! I can barely use the wrench without almost giving myself a concussion. He should have known better."

"Yeah," Kristoff says, nodding thoughtfully, "he should have."

* * *

_"The Test will commence at positive three and conclude at positive five. All non-essential employees may attend the event if permitted by their supervisor."_

Anna's head shoots up from the table. She hadn't been napping, she was just resting her head for a moment while Kai was reorganizing the various loose pipes delivered to them that Anna needs to tighten for the day. Kai walks back over to their mechanic bench and sets down the five pipes he had gathered. Anna stares up at him with hopeful eyes. _The Test is today. _Anna has never been a huge fan of the event – which takes place annually – but it means skipping work, so she has a certain fondness for it.

Kai sighs. "You're dismissed."

Anna bolts up and hugs him. "Thanks, Kai! I swear I'll be back as soon as it's over!"

"Yeah, yeah," Kai responds gruffly. "Take your time… I'll probably get more done without you." She holds out her left arm and Kai inputs a code into her RWD, granting her permission to be off work. And then Anna is out the door, skipping and humming a tune eerily similar to the one she memorized during her stay at the Pillars.

When she's far enough down the hall, Anna slows her skip to a stride. There's no rush getting to the Test. After all, _she's _not the one taking it. She breathes a sigh of relief at that. When you turn ten, you're given the RWD that is essential for access into any place in Underground 6. For kids under ten, they have parents to get them through every locked door. Or, when you're an orphan for a year before your tenth birthday like Anna was, you end up with the other parentless children in the Bricks. For one whole year she lived with the caretakers there, rarely venturing outside of the clay-laden walls.

Most of Underground 6 is made from impermeable steal, but originally the place had been built with hardened soil. Over many years, steel replaced the dirt walls, but for whatever reason the Bricks remain untouched. Although, if Anna had to hazard a guess, the neglect of the Bricks probably came with the undesirable status of 'orphan' in Underground 6. It wasn't a very happy time in Anna's life, to put her childhood lightly. But if anything good came out of it, that's the place where she met Kristoff – another child of the Bricks. Kristoff spent the better part of six years there before, like Anna, he turned ten and was finally free of the caretaker's ownership. It was at the Bricks that they became best friends – a partnership that has lasted nearly a decade.

While it's possible to apply for a unit and begin living alone at the tender age of ten, work doesn't start until two years later. When you turn twelve, you take the Test. And then you spend the rest of your life in the occupation that the Test deems you best suited for. Children begin school at age five, and they continue throughout the education system for seven years. Every child that turns twelve before the scheduled date of the Test each year is required to take it. After that, they're done with general education and begin working for the betterment of their fellow citizens of the Underground. The Test can be a scary process, as the professors don't teach their students anything about it, and the whole affair is exactly what decides your future.

No one told Anna it was going to be a personality test. Perhaps that's a downfall of not having parents to prepare you for the big moment, and your best friend being equally clueless.

Anna arrives outside of the Test location. It's a small, white room with fifteen desks occupying it. There's a large window by the door where a crowd is already gathering. Anna remembers that window. In the Test room, it's a mirror, but from this side an audience of parents, friends, and employees who want an excuse to get out of work can peer in on the silent affair. Anna can still visualize the last time she was in this room. It was only six years ago. She glances at the desk in the back right corner. That was her seat. Today, it's empty. Only eight of the fifteen seats are filled. There are never more than fifteen kids in a year at the Test, but it feels like the numbers keep dwindling as time wears on. When Underground 6 began, there were over two hundred people strolling the halls, now the place is struggling to keep its numbers over one hundred.

Anna had been nervous on the day of the Test. She had never been a particularly good student. Looking now, she can see her face mirrored in the expressions of a couple of the kids today. Gerda, a plump woman with a kind smile, is overseeing the Test. She was there back when Anna had taken it, too. The smile on the woman's face had eased a little of Anna's nerves, but when she spoke, it was like she was putting the fate of the world on her shoulders.

"Now, this is the Test. I'm sure you've heard a lot about it from your professors in the past weeks. I'm sure they've told you that there's nothing they can do to prepare you for it. And hopefully they explained how imperative it was that you study on your own. The Test decides your future, after all, and it's permanent! It's never wrong and we've never had a single complaint. Don't worry, don't worry, no one has ever failed before. Although there's a first for everything, ho, ho! Just take your time. You have one hour to complete the Test. During the second hour, an impartial judge shall grade them and deliver your results. After that, your lifelong occupation will be decided and you will report to your new supervisor for further instructions."

That's the speech. Anna can read Gerda's lips as she gives it now to the students sitting before her. Anna had winced repeatedly with every word, and by the time the Test was in front of her, she had felt less prepared than ever before. When Gerda placed the Test on her desk, she had widened her eyes in surprise. There were ten questions and they were the last types of things she was expecting to be asked.

One of the questions had said, "You've just tucked yourself into bed during the negative hours after a long day and strange-colored fumes begin seeping into your unit! What do you do?

"A) Who cares about a little vapor smoke? You're tired, go to bed!

"B) Scream bloody murder and bang on your locked door; you don't like putting anything in your nose that you can see!

"C) Breathe the gas in, maybe it will give you some sort of special powers?

"D) You're ready for the sweet nectar of death – welcome the glorious beyond with an open mouth."

Anna had lingered between A and C for a while, before eventually checking B. She figured that was the kind of answer the Test was looking for.

Another question read, "You've been selected as the winner of Underground 6's Food-for-Life lottery, even though you've never heard of such a thing or even entered yourself into the raffle. The lottery administration wants you to report immediately to an isolated area of the Underground to claim your prize. What do you do?

"A) Wow, you love food! You better get over there ASAP! The quicker you arrive, the quicker you can eat!

"B) You'll go, but you're bringing a gun. Who knows what other treasures these lottery people are keeping from you? You want it all!

"C) Report it to your President. You never entered a lottery and this one doesn't seem Underground-approved. It's clearly a ploy to get you away from the pack in order to mug you or some other awful deed.

"D) Give the winning ticket to someone else who needs the food. You get by, after all, and there are a lot of the hungry and sickly around."

Anna knew the _right _thing to do, as a person, was to choose D. At the same time, she _really _wanted this lottery-winning food. Guiltily, she felt her pencil scraping at option A. But, in the end, she chose C. Reporting potentially suspicious activity was the sort of thing the President wanted to think his people would do, despite the option not even being on Anna's radar outside of the Test.

She had the easiest time with the last question, "Who is indisputably the most important person of the Underground system: He who shelters us from the harshness of the icy wasteland, and to whom we owe everything we have, including our lives?

"A) The King

"B) The King

"C) The King

"D) The King"

She chose A – the King – figuring first was best in the eyes of the Test administration.

After a harrowing hour, she returned the Test to the front. Gerda had given her another kind smile and shoved the sheet through a slot in the wall with all the others. Anna waited at her desk for what was the longest, most agonizing hour of her life before all of the papers from the Test were shoved back through the slot with their results on them. Gerda passed them out, much too slowly for Anna's liking. When she finally placed Anna's result paper, facedown, in front of the redhead, the girl had stared at it for a solid minute before flipping it over.

On that day, Anna started her life as a mechanic.

"I thought you'd be here." Anna turns to see Kristoff standing next to her, arms folded, watching the Test taking place through the window. He's got his delivery bag slung over his shoulder.

"You're on duty?"

Kristoff nods. "I'm on my way to make a delivery…" He glances around them, then raises his eyebrows at Anna. She knows what that look means. Another strange delivery. "This was on the way," he continues, "and I heard the King is going to make an appearance after the Test is over."

Anna raises her eyebrows. "The _King _is coming? _Here?_" That's unheard of. Anna has never even seen King Hans, besides in pictures depicting him saving the people from the wasteland outside. Occasionally, the President shows up for special events, but the King is supposedly in Underground 1, which, as far as Anna knows, is far away from Underground 6. The only way to move between the different Undergrounds is to venture _outside_. Anna doesn't even know how to _get _outside. No one does. The whole point of living in the Underground is that it is impenetrable. There's no way to get in and there's no way to get out. It's completely sealed from the icy wasteland taking over the world above.

So how could the King possibly be making an appearance, here of all places, unless he's been in Underground 6 all along?

"That's why the deliveries can wait. I've _got_ to see this."

"What about your, um, incredibly specific deliveries?" Anna asks, eyes widening slightly to hint at what she's talking about.

Kristoff shrugs. "A slightly late delivery won't be the end of the world."

* * *

Kristoff wasn't wrong about the King making an appearance. After the last student hands in their Test, Gerda shoves them all in the slot at the front wall. And then she clears her throat and pulls a projector down for everyone – including the people staring in from the window – to see. Anna can't hear what she's saying to the students, but they all shift their attention to the projector. Anna lifts herself up onto her toes, determined not to miss a thing.

The projector brightens. It flashes a couple of times. And then an image appears on the screen. The King is young, perhaps early thirties. He's as handsome as the textbooks said he was. He has neatly trimmed and parted blonde hair with dark sideburns. His eyes glow a woodsy green – or, at least, what Anna imagines the forestry in Arendelle might have looked like. He has a thin mustache over the expanse of his lip, which manages to highlight his features rather well. He wears the gold-encrusted suit tailored for the Kingship. The shine of his outfit lights his face with a warm glow.

Anna muses that he's much younger than she expected. Wasn't he twenty-three when he led the revolution? Based on the image before her, it looks like only a decade has passed.

When the King speaks, his voice booms over the loudspeaker for the entirety of the Underground to hear him. While only the select few who took the Test or decided to peer in on it can see him, no one can escape the sound. "Hello, citizens of the Underground." His voice is deep and commanding. Anna can see how he managed to rally whole troops behind him. He demanded respect with mere syllables. In his eyes, he captured your attention. "It's been ten years since our descent into the Underground. In that time, we have managed to establish an infallible system in order to continue enjoying life."

Anna's eyebrows knit together, confused. "Ten years? I thought – "

"It's a prerecorded message, Anna," Kristoff whispers, rolling his eyes. "Now shut up and listen."

The King clears his throat, as if Anna had interrupted him, and continues, "But it can not last forever. Even the strongest warrior can not defeat the weapon of Time. And so, even the most blossoming of systems will eventually wither. This Test that has been constructed by the best of experts is designed to keep our systems running for as long as we have the people to support it. Money is no object in the world today. Food is free, although scarce and sacred. All that I – your King – ask of you is that you do your part to help us all escape from the talons of Time. While we can't outrun her forever, we can run steadfastly and strong and hope our efforts lead us into a better tomorrow.

"So, I'd like to thank the citizens who bravely take the Test each year. The very quality of life we have depends on you. I hope you accept your role and responsibilities. For the good of the people. For the good of yourself. For the future functionality of our world. I make this speech as a diploma of gratitude. It is you that keeps us alive. You are all warriors against Time. I salute your valiant efforts to keep fighting. Every day we have is another battle won.

"Thank you, citizens of the Underground, for being the bravest warriors I have ever had the pleasure of leading."

Silence. After the booming voice had been echoing through the halls, the absence feels eerily out of place. Anna shivers despite herself. She glances at Kristoff, who stares at the young King with a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. She doesn't know why he looks upset. She thought it was a riveting speech.

The King on the screen slowly morphs. Anna lets out a gasp as she watches his glistening hair turn grey, his perfect skin crease as wrinkles make their home around his eyes and mouth, his mustache disappears. Only his eyes remain the same from the young King they had all just been watching.

King Hans is wearing the same outfit as his younger counterpart, although it doesn't make his paler face light up the same way it did when he was thirty-three. The sixty-three year old man can still command respect with those eyes, and his voice sounds wise after years of leadership.

"Citizens of the Underground, what you just listened to was a message made by your King forty years ago, when this system – and I – was in its youthful prime. Today is the fiftieth anniversary of life in the Underground, and I – your humble King – come to you, once again, with a speech… but this time of a different nature. Forty years ago I asked you to rally behind me in the war to be waged against Time. Four decades later and it warms my heart to see how far we've come. But, like in any war, there are two sides. It disheartens me to tell you that there are individuals around us all that don't want you to succeed. Their hearts have been shattered by the ice. And they want to bring you down with them.

"It's painful to learn that some of my citizens – people I consider my _children_ – have put a death wish upon us all. In a bitter attempt to kill themselves, they wish to kill all of us with them. They plan to open the Underground and unleash the icy wasteland that eternally rages above us. I bid of you – my forever gracious warriors – to not allow this suicide mission to take place. After fifty years of a peaceful life, do not let us be destroyed by the selfishly foolish goals of a few.

"They could be your brothers and sisters. They could be your neighbors and friends. In this war, you can trust no one. There is only me – the King who shelters you from treachery – and you. Be my valiant hero and save us from damnation. Be my right hand and carry the sword of justice. Be forever my loyal servant – as I have forever been yours – and together we shall be legendary.

"The savage cult has many faces. I am saddened to admit that I learned of this twisted group from my youngest son... He has been sick for a while, and my wife and I have done everything in our power to heal him, but unfortunately he has shut us out and instead offered his heart to the devil... This is how serious I am to protect you. I give up my youngest son – the boy who shares my very name – for the good of my people. Search out the lowly snakes who work in secret to kill you and cut off their heads. I entrust this task to you. We are aware of a number of these sadistic mass murders and will issue out pictures of the scum who pray for your death. They are all among you, in every Underground. Please, my people, my children. I urge you. I beg of you. This is my speech. This is my plea. Protect us from treason in whatever way you can. Save us all."

Silence. The projector goes blank. Anna can hear murmuring rise up among the audience. It's quiet, fearful, and yet somehow deafening. Anna looks at Kristoff and finds a sense of comfort to see her scared features mirrored on his own face.

The projector brightens. There's a collective gasp from the audience as everyone jerks their head up to the screen. It's a picture of Hans the second, the King's youngest son. He has a thick head of red hair, with wild, bushy sideburns. His green eyes seem to be brighter and livelier than his father's, and he's free of any mustache. He's handsome, just like his father, with only twenty-three years on him. The King offers his son for the people of the Underground to find and kill? His son, who looks like him, who is the same age as the King was when he triumphed against the cold and brought them underground, he expects his people to snap his son's neck like it's nothing?

His face dissolves and is replaced by someone Anna has never seen before, someone who is definitely not from Underground 6. Wild brown hair, a pale, chubby face with a long nose and large front teeth that poke out of his mouth. Anna can tell this boy is just that – a little boy. He can't be past his teens. Does the King really expect his citizens to murder a child? His face dissolves to a girl that Anna doesn't recognize either. She has short, spiky brown hair. Her eyes are orb-like and emerald green, with a sense of wonder and excitement sparking them. Her smile is warm and bubbly. This girl, too, doesn't look like a murderer. Does the King expect them to find this girl and bludgeon her to death? To break her fragile frame? To watch the light leave her curious eyes? Anna can't even imagine this girl harming a fly.

The next face gives Anna a shock. She gasps and grabs Kristoff's shoulder. It's the bushy mustache and frown of Kai. Anna whimpers, tightening her grip on Kristoff. No. No, no, no. _No_. The people around them begin murmuring again. They recognize Kai, too. It's someone from _their_ Underground... A killer, a murderer. A couple more faces cycle through the screen, but the only one Anna can see is Kai's. Her eyes burn and she drops her gaze. Tears threaten to stream down her face. Her shoulders are heaving as she fights to hold them back.

Kristoff nudges her. His face is on the screen with wide eyes. Dread fills her stomach. Who else do they know that's on the list? Her eyes dart to the screen and she lets out an inescapable whimper. The familiar blonde braid. The icy blue eyes. The confident smirk with a playfully raised eyebrow. Of course. Who else had she been expecting?

_Elsa._

* * *

**Oi, hey, folks! For those of you that have noticed the elements of Fallout implemented in this story, I hope you enjoyed my rendition of the Test. For those of you that are not familiar with Fallout, I hope you still enjoyed it. It happened to be my favorite part to write. In fact, I was actually considering writing up a side story that detailed some of the main characters going through the Test - answering all ten questions, their thought processes, what their results were, etc. I figured it could be something I save and sprinkle in every once in a while if I'm having writer's block or need a break from the main story. If you feel strongly one way or another about adding some of the Test side stories, lemme know.**

**Be cool - Dog Food**


	5. No Country for Old Men

The citizens have gone wild.

Screaming. Running. Crashing. Crying. Flailing. Fleeing. The ground is shaking from their trembling feet. The walls are rebounding with the screeching of the frightened. Anna is knocked over by someone's rear and ends up on the ground. There are feet everywhere. Anna yelps as someone steps on her hand. She tears up as something sharp digs into her thigh. She rolls out of the way of the onslaught of trampling feet. But anywhere she moves, she gets in someone else's way. Someone kicks her in the head and she sees stars. Everything goes white for a moment, until she feels strong arms wrapping around her waist.

Kristoff pulls her up and hugs her close. Anna is shaking. She feels something warm trickling down her forehead. It rolls down her nose. It drips into her mouth. It tastes metallic against her tongue. Anna takes a huge gulp of breath and wriggles free of Kristoff's grip. She reaches for the wound on her head, but Kristoff takes her hand into his own and shakes his head. He nods for her to come with him. Silently, weaving between frantic citizens, Kristoff leads Anna away from the havoc wreaking around them.

When he finds a quiet spot, away from other people, he stops. Anna waits numbly for Kristoff to take direction. She's relying on him to lead. It's taking all of her effort not to think about the speech she just listened to, of the people on the screen she just saw, of the frenzy the Underground has turned into. Instead, she focuses on the pain aching throughout her body. The blood that steadily streams down her head. The pounding sensation in her ribcages. The burning sting in her hand. She moves her fingers, assessing the damage. They don't seem broken, but she can already see the bruise forming.

"Anna."

She looks up, slowly. Kristoff's concerned face stares back at her. She isn't sure what expression her own face is making. Something between dumbfounded disbelief and pained repression.

"Do you understand what's going on?"

Anna's face scrunches into a quizzical expression. Does Kristoff need Anna to explain everything to him? She isn't sure she has the energy for that right now. With a frustrated sigh, she shrugs. She feels the tears welling up in her eyes, but she holds them back. She chokes out the words, "Kai… and Elsa… are in trouble." With those words, she allows her mind to flash back to all those faces. Without being able to help it, she continues, "And that poor little boy… And all those other people… The King's own son… He wants them all dead. That boy couldn't have been older than thirteen, Kristoff! And the King told us to kill them all!"

"The King claims they are trying to murder us," Kristoff says softly.

"Kai would never!" Anna yells. "Elsa… Elsa wouldn't!"

Not even Kristoff is willing to argue against Anna right now. Instead, he pulls her into another hug as the tears she's been holding back finally break free. She collapses into Kristoff's grip, clinging to his shirt as she lets out every last tear that she's ever concealed.

When she finally pulls away, her eyes are red and her face is a wet imprint on Kristoff's shirt. She's surprised by the giggle that escapes her when she sees it. Kristoff glances down and grimaces. He tries to wipe the tearstain off his shirt without much success. Anna giggles again, but it sounds more like a hiccup. She sniffles and wipes the snot running down her nose. Kristoff rolls his eyes at the pathetic sight of Anna, but he smiles with her. And then Anna can't help it, she's doubled over in laughter. She's laughing so hard that she's crying again. She's laughing so hard that she can't breathe and her ribs ache. She's laughing and she doesn't even really know why. Kristoff watches her with a concerned expression, not exactly sure what to do. He just stands there, dumbly, as Anna's laughter dies down and she finally catches her breath.

When the moment passes, Anna sighs. She looks up at Kristoff with wide eyes. "What are we going to do?"

"What do you want to do?"

Anna is silent for a long time. "I believe in her, you know," Anna finally whispers, staring at her hands. _She's my angel_. She bites her lip, refusing to say it out loud. Knowing how pathetic it will sound now to Kristoff, especially after everything that's happened.

"I know." And for some reason, Kristoff looks like he's in pain.

"I can't explain it. And, and I could be completely wrong. Maybe she is in some sort of crazy group that wants to kill everyone. You're right, what reason do I have to trust her? What conversation have we had that proves her innocence? And maybe I am too gullible, I don't know, but… but when I look into her eyes, I don't see a bad person. I don't see a murderer. I only see… warmth."

"So you think the King is a liar? He named his own _son_ among the group."

Anna shrugs. "He doesn't have to be a liar. He's just wrong."

Kristoff sighs and puts his face into his hands. "There's nothing I can say to convince you otherwise, is there?"

"Nope!" Anna says, her voice almost cheerful again.

He groans and peeks out from behind his fingers. "Please tell me you're not planning on doing what I think you are."

Anna grins at him, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "Come on, Kristoff! We've got a delivery to make!"

* * *

_The Bricks._

That's where they are heading. The location of the package Kristoff is supposed to deliver is in the Bricks. Anna is apprehensive to go back there, after all, those weren't her best of times. But she's with Kristoff, who is always a comfort when it comes to visiting their old home. And they have a very special delivery to make.

They try to avoid people wherever they can. The citizens acted rather quickly to the news that there were traitors in Underground 6. The pandemonium had begun as soon as the screen shut off. Anna isn't completely sure what they're planning to do. Hide out in their units? Stage some sort of revolt? Find and… _deal with_ the traitors? She thinks about Elsa and begins to run faster. She's positive that the blonde isn't a murderer. Or, at least, she _hopes _she isn't. At the very least, Anna needs to find her and get her answers before anyone else does.

As they move farther through Underground 6, signs of life grow more and more scarce. Anna and Kristoff slow their pace. The echoing of their feet clanging against the ground is too distracting in the growing emptiness around them. They sneak as quietly as they can, sure that if anyone sees them, they'll know which side they've aligned themselves with and potentially harm them in a panicked frenzy.

When a mangled cry cuts through the darkness, Anna and Kristoff both jump. They glance at each other, relief that neither is hurt masking their worry. And then there's another yelp of pain and Anna's eyes widen as she realizes where they are.

The mechanics room is right down that hall.

_Kai._

"Anna, wait – " Kristoff is only a second behind her thought process, but he calls out too late. He watches as the redheaded girl sprints towards the noise, faster than he could ever hope to keep up.

Anna bursts through the door to the mechanical room. And then she freezes. She doesn't know what she was expecting to see. _Not this,_ she thinks, her heart beating so fast it's painful. _Please… anything but this._

A man Anna recognizes as a writer – which usually involves tailoring the President's speeches – is standing above the bloody outline of… well, it must be Kai. She can make out the white, walrus mustache beneath a fresh coat of sticky blood. But it doesn't look like him anymore. Most of him is covered in an ooze of dark, thick blood and he's slumped on the ground in a defeated position. It isn't until he lets out a whimper that Anna snaps to action.

_ He's still alive._

Anna isn't sure what to do. But when she sees the man lift his hand up – a hand layered in Kai's blood – to land another punch, Anna just reacts. She rushes forward with a cry and dives into the man. They tumble onto the ground, with Anna on top. The writer's head connects with the ground and she sees his eyes bulge for a moment in surprise. Then, to her horror, she watches them glisten red with anger and glare at her. He throws a punch that connects with her jaw, sending Anna spiraling backwards.

She lands on the ground with a grunt and her hand immediately cradles her chin. Blood flows into her mouth and she spits it onto the floor. When she looks up again, she can see the man has returned to his initial target. Anna can't believe this. This man fights with a pen, not a sword. She's listened to the riveting speeches he has written over the years. Occasionally, in his spare time, he writes poetry. He wears a kind smile when he sits in the background of political debates and he's never, _ever_, appeared violent… Until now.

Anna pushes back her thoughts and ignores the pounding in her jaw. She grabs onto the table to help pull herself up and sees her wrench laying just where she left it. She blinks a couple of times, just staring at the object. And then she realizes what to do. She picks it up… she never noticed how heavy it is… and turns around. The writer lands another punch to Kai's head and the groan of her supervisor fills Anna's ears. With a strength and rage that Anna never knew she had, she brings the wrench down on the man before her.

Her wrench connects with the man's head with a resounding crack. He collapses on the ground. Anna can't even bring herself to feel anything in that moment. Without the man obscuring her vision, she can fully take in Kai.

Her supervisor has a welt growing over his right eye and he's missing most of his teeth. She searches him, but she can't find a sliver of skin not dripping in blood. Anna can smell it on him and her stomach tightens dangerously. She kneels beside him, softly cupping his bloody cheeks and tilting his head to look up at her.

"Kai…"

"…Anna…" His words are garbled and blood specks fly out of his mouth with every syllable.

Anna quivers, but she forces herself to be strong. "It's going to be okay, Kai. I-I promise… It's going to be…" The words get caught in her throat, so she stops. Whatever she was saying, it didn't mean anything, anyway. Instead, she looks into Kai's one good eye and tries to show him all the things she means to say with one devastated look.

"I'm… sorry… f-for…" Kai tries to speak, but he's finding it difficult. Anna glances up and with horror realizes that the top of his head has caved in. She looks away, trembling, not wanting to know what that fluid seeping out of his head is. "I've tried… to help… you… da… daugh… ter…"

The tears warm Anna's cheek as they fall. "You w-were like a father to m-me, too, Kai," she says, crying. "You _are _like a father to me. P-Please, don't… A-And, I know y-you aren't a traitor. You wouldn't m-murder anyone, I know that, Kai, please just… please don't… Don't leave me."

Kai reaches up, his hands shake violently with every motion. He manages to take Anna's hands in his own and cradle the wrench still tightly gripped in Anna's hand. "K-Keep it… Need… Y-you'll need… it. E-Elsa…"

Anna nods. "O-Okay, Kai, I'll keep it. Just stay with me and I'll keep it forever. I'll never let it go. Just _please _you have to hold on. You can't leave me, too! Please, Kai, you can't leave, too. You're fine… Yes, Elsa, Elsa! W-We're going to find her, Kai. And she can heal you. She'll make you b-better and everything will be okay and you're _not going to die, _alright? It's just a head wound. I-It's small, it's so small you can barely see it. You're going to be alright. Please, just be alright…"

She cradles him as she cries in low moans. She doesn't care that brain matter is dripping into her hair. She doesn't care that she's covered in someone else's blood. She doesn't care that Kai stopped breathing a minute ago. She's going to stay here, right here, forever and hold onto the man she called father and nothing will ever rip her away from this moment in time, right here, right now…

A pair of hands lightly graze her shoulders. Slowly, lightly, they pull her up and turn her away from the dead body of Kai. She's wrapped into Kristoff's arms, so tightly that she can't even tremble. She doesn't have the energy to tremble, anyway. The burly blonde leads Anna outside of the mechanical room, into the empty hallway. He allows her five minutes. She curls up into a tight ball on the floor, staring at her knees as the tears fall endlessly.

Finally, Kristoff says, "You knocked that guy out cold."

Anna is about to ask who he's talking about, until she remembers the writer that killed Kai. Anger flares inside her, and for a moment she wishes she had killed him. And then the anger is replaced by guilt, and then remorse. She buries her face into her hands and cries some more.

"It's not going to get any easier," Kristoff says. "This is just the beginning."

Anna fights for air. Her eyes can't produce any more tears, although she still feels like crying. With a deep breath she asks, "What do you mean?"

"Like it or not, Kai was a part of _something _or else the King would never have targeted him. I'll admit that I might have been wrong about what side Elsa is on. The King's speech was very… revealing. And Elsa has had plenty of opportunities to harm you… and she hasn't. The only people hurting other people right now are the ones acting on the King's orders. So, you may have been right. About everything." Kristoff's shoulders sag. Anna knows how hard it is for him to admit he's wrong. She manages a small smile in his direction. He kneels down next to her and notices the wrench still in her hands. "What's that for?"

Anna presses the cool wrench to her heart. "Kai's… parting gift."

"Did he have any other last word?"

"Just…" _That I'm like a daughter to him. _She can't say the words. Instead, she searches for something else to fill the void of her sentence. And then she remembers. "Elsa. He said… Elsa."

Kristoff nods. "I thought so."

"Wait, what?" Anna looks at him with a frown.

"You said it yourself. Kai knows how clumsy you are. Yet he kept giving you that fire-producing tool without any instructions on how to use it."

"What are you – "

"Don't get mad, I'm not saying it's a bad thing… at least, not anymore. Now that I think Kai and Elsa might be on the good side, my theories are changing a bit."

"What – what theories? Why have I not heard about any of this?"

Kristoff holds up his hands defensively. "Calm down. I didn't want you to get worked up over nothing. I just had some… ideas. Like maybe Kai and Elsa were kind of, I don't know, in cahoots or something."

Anna feels the anger rising up. "You thought Kai… You thought… _Kai _was a _bad guy_?! You thought he was working with Elsa to do something… to… to _hurt _me or something?!"

"Whoa, whoa, calm down! I was sort of right, wasn't I? Only, you know, uh, not about the bad guy part, per se, but… Ow!" Anna slaps Kristoff right across the face. He turns his head away, his cheek stinging. "Okay, I'm sorry… I… I shouldn't have brought it up so soon… Really, Anna, I'm sorry."

Anna sighs. "No, I'm sorry. I'm just… I can't believe he's gone." The more she reflects on it, the more it sounds like Kristoff may be right. _Kai knew Elsa. It always comes back to her. He wanted me to find her. That's what he was saying. He was trying to help me… because he wanted me to find Elsa? Did he know? Did he know it was always going to come to this?_

Anna stands up. Kristoff follows suit. "What now?" he asks, tentatively, shirking away slightly when Anna lifts her arms.

"We're going to find Elsa. And I have a feeling that package will take us right to her."

* * *

**Oh man, shit's getting intense... and our first character death! I'm going to try to update (bi?)weekendly (pretend that's a word) now that I'm back in school and I have less time to devote to this project. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy whatever dark recesses I take this story into. Embrace the pain...**


	6. Safety Not Guaranteed

The cool, cement walls of the Bricks. Anna runs her fingers along it, remembering the year she spent here. The Bricks are in the most isolated section of Underground 6, even further past cell 12. Some people call it cell 13, as a joke. Once you start living in the Bricks, you never really leave it. Although, currently, it's empty. Its inhabitants must be busily running through the Underground in the chaos going on past these walls.

The place is really just one room, with five beds on either side of the wall. At the front is a door that leads into the caretaker's room – which is a regular unit. Anna finds her old bed, the second one on the right, and sits down on it. Somehow, it feels even colder and harder than she remembers it. And her memories of this place are nothing if not cold and harsh.

The pain of losing Kai is still raw. As she sits on the bed, her adrenaline finally calming, another wave of emotion hits her. She doesn't cry this time, but she remembers Kai's beaten face, she fingers the wrench he gave her, and his last words echo through her head. He knew Elsa. And Anna is sure that he wanted her to find the beautiful blonde. She knew that, somehow, Elsa would make everything better.

"I was supposed to make the delivery an hour ago. During the start of the King's speech," Kristoff says. He takes a small, thin package out of his bag. "The instructions say to leave it on the caretaker's bed."

Anna slides off the bed and walks over to the door. She puts her hand on the cold knob. And then she hesitates. _Elsa must be behind this door, _she thinks, her heart racing. But she can't bring herself to open it. What if they're too late and Elsa is gone? What if the door is locked and there's no way to get inside? _What if this is my last chance to see her again… and I blow it?_

"Just open it," Kristoff urges, strolling over to stand next to her. Anna takes a deep breath and turns the knob. It doesn't move. She jingles it, but to no avail. The doorknob just won't budge.

Anna groans and takes a step back. "It's locked!" She can't believe it. They really were too late. She was so sure Elsa was the one making the deliveries… That Elsa would be here… But now, it looks like they came here for nothing. The door is locked. Kristoff failed to deliver his package. And who knows what consequences will come of that…

"That's what happens when you're late."

The voice makes Anna's heart stop. She whips her head around in time to see the pale, blonde beauty – wearing the same glistening blue dress that Anna first saw her in – walking towards them with an unfazed grin.

"E-Elsa!" Anna says in a surprised squeak.

"Anna," Elsa says politely, dipping her head forward. She turns to Kristoff and offers him the same courtesy. "And Anna's emergency contact... Kristoff."

Kristoff merely offers her a tight smile in return. Elsa doesn't seem to notice the lack of warmth. Then again, Anna seems to radiate enough of it for the both of them. She can't take her eyes off of Elsa. _She's here. She's really, really here… _Anna takes in every feature, as if it might be the last time. Elsa's slightly flushed cheeks, her long lashes, full lips… Anna blinks, trying to control herself, and moves away from Elsa's face. She traces the indent of Elsa's collarbones, the slender arch of her shoulders, her bare arms… Wait, her bare arms?

"Your RWD…" Anna starts, finally finding it in herself to voice the question she's had since the first day she met Elsa. "It's, well, it's gone." Anna realizes how lame that sounds, so she tries to save herself by talking some more. "I mean, I've noticed it before. You weren't wearing it the first time we met. That day in cell 12, when we bumped into each other… Oh gosh, not that I remember that day because I think back to it all the time, because I… well, I do, but that's only because it was kind of a strange occurrence. Not that you're strange, because you're not! Well, _you _aren't, but the circumstances surrounding you are. I just mean, cause the next time we met you were wearing it again… Not that I remember every single encounter we've had! I mean, I do, but there haven't been that many of them and they were all kind of out of the ordinary so it makes sense that I wouldn't forget… Not that I expect _you _to remember them or anything, they probably weren't a big deal for you, I mean, it was just me – "

"Just you?" Elsa tilts her head to the side, eyeing Anna intently. The redhead blushes. Elsa has never interrupted Anna on one of her tangents before. In fact, _no one _has interrupted Anna on one of her tangents before. She finds herself getting lost in those blue eyes, falling deeper and deeper until…

Kristoff clears his throat. Anna jumps and looks at her best friend. She blushes as she realizes that she completely forgot he was even there. "So, Elsa," he says, his voice betraying his annoyance, "we've got your package."

"Yes, only an hour later," Elsa says, nodding slyly.

"We got held up," Kristoff says, pursing his lips.

"Mmm," Elsa hums. "I believe the instructions were to leave it on the caretaker's bed?"

"The door's locked," he counters.

Elsa glides across the room. In what feels like one breath, Elsa removes all distance between her and Anna. She's only inches from the redhead now. Anna can count every single one of the faded freckles on the blonde's pale face. With the gap between them gone, Anna is struggling to breathe. She turns her head away from Elsa, afraid she might do something incredibly idiotic otherwise.

"The door," Elsa whispers. Her breath tickles Anna's cheek. Her brain is fogging and she can't think clearly.

"Wha…?"

"Behind you."

Anna remembers she's standing in front of the door. With a nervous giggle, she steps to the side. Elsa takes a pin out of her hair and inserts it into the lock in the door.

Kristoff makes a noise. "What are you doing?"

"Unlocking the door," Elsa says, jingling the pin around in the hole.

"You're going to get us killed," Kristoff says, looking around the empty room. "Won't the Blacks notice a door opened without the proper RWD imput?" The Blacks' job is to keep the Underground secure. They do that by manning the database and watching for suspicious activity connected to RWDs. For the most part they make sure that everyone respects curfew, that no one is in a restricted-access-area, and that everyone's vitals look healthy. As far as Anna knows, the Blacks don't usually _kill _anyone – but tonight might be a special case, seeing as who they are with.

"Your friend is very distracting," Elsa says, sparing Anna a glance before turning back to the doorknob she's fidgeting with. Anna just giggles, until a look from Kristoff shuts her up.

"Are you almost there?" Kristoff asks anxiously.

"Almost…" There's a soft _'click!' _and Elsa steps back with a triumphant beam. Anna hasn't seen this smile before and she finds herself staring as if she's preparing to capture a picture on a canvas. "…there! Come on. And close the door behind you."

They step into the room. Elsa motions towards the bed. Kristoff rolls his eyes and places it on the pillow. "There. Are you happy now?"

"Much," Elsa says. She glances between the pair of them. Her eyes linger on Anna, specifically, they fall on the wrench still held tightly in Anna's grip. She looks back up at Anna. "Where's Kai?"

The redhead's eyes widen at the memory – it's still a fresh wound. Her eyes burn, but this time she manages not to cry. "He… died."

"A crazed citizen beat him to death," Kristoff says bitterly.

Elsa stares at them for a long moment. Finally, she says, "Oh. I see." She turns away and walks to the bed, her shoulders scrunched up to her face. She places her hands on the hard mattress to steady herself. "I'm sorry, Anna," she says after a moment. "I know he was your supervisor. And that he was very important to you." Anna can only nod, although Elsa's back is still to them. Elsa straightens up again and picks the envelope off the pillow. She turns to face the two of them. "I owe you both an explanation, I know."

"N-No, of course – "

"Yeah." Anna glares at Kristoff, who interrupted her with his affirmative request. He shrugs at Anna and looks at Elsa. "After everything we've been through, we deserve an explanation."

Elsa gives Kristoff a curt nod. "Unfortunately," she says with a sad smile, "I do not have the time to give it to you."

"What do you mean?" Kristoff asks.

"Like you said, the Blacks will eventually notice the break-in. I'm sure they've been slowed down by the chaos in the Underground, but not deterred. We're in the final stage of my plan now. It would be rather unfortunate if I was stopped here… especially after all the sacrifices that were made to get to this point."

"What's your plan? What's going on?" Kristoff asks, his voice growing louder with each question.

Elsa holds her hand up, silencing him. She tears the envelope and takes out whatever is inside. At first, it looks like nothing, and Anna is afraid that somehow they managed to screw up the last delivery. But then she sees the soft gleam of something.

"What's that?" she asks, tilting her head to try and see it better.

Elsa holds it up between her index finger and thumb for the two of them to see. It's a small, thin, green square with what looks like a metallic coating. "It's a computer chip," Elsa explains. "We've been working on this plan for years. I have some people in tech that have been creating this software – thankfully our _King _hasn't found them yet – and… Kai was my mechanic." She turns away again, her shoulders raised, but this time she strides towards the furthest wall. When she stops, she straightens herself out again, drags a chair over to that spot and stands up on it. She begins running her fingers along the topmost bricks, as if she is searching for something. As she does, she continues to explain, "I didn't want to associate myself with the techs behind this software. The King has had a red flag on me for a while now. And we didn't know anyone in delivery… So I looked for the guy who always got his work in on time and never asked questions."

"Kristoff never _stops_ asking questions," Anna says.

"I should say, never asks the questions that would lead him to go to the authorities. An orphan. The children of the Bricks are usually less likely to support the Blacks. And, if they do, they are often quickly dismissed. So I used him as my middle man, figuring the less he knew, the better for him. Thank you, Kristoff, for passing my notes and the bits of equipment that we could dare to send between each other so publically."

Kristoff remains stiff for a moment. But Elsa's left arm is exposed once again when she reaches up to tap a brick, and he can't help but ask another question. "What about your RWD?"

"Kai was a great help with that," Elsa says, and Anna can hear the mourning in her voice. The redhead feels a sense of warmth. Elsa knew Kai the way Anna knew Kai. Elsa mourns for Kai the way Anna mourns for Kai. And for some reason, this connection between the three of them is enough to make Anna smile. "I had a scientist manufacture a certain acid that could destroy my RWD. And Kai was brilliant – with the help of that scientist – in creating a new, more advanced one. An RWD that I can take off at any time and walk without detection, but one that will always remain on, with my vitals healthy and my location at various points throughout the Underground."

"Where are all these people now, that you say helped you? Are they all dead?"

Elsa stops what she's doing and looks at Kristoff for a moment, a frown creasing her features. "No," she says softly. "The only person planning to come with me… was Kai." She turns away again, fumbling with the bricks. This time, she manages to dislodge one. Anna gasps as Elsa rips the brick out of the wall and drops it onto the ground with a clatter. Elsa remains unimpressed with her own actions, still speaking as she continues ripping into the wall. "It's my fault. I got too close to him. I spent time with him. We ate together in the mess hall occasionally. I began to view him as… as a friend, or… or maybe a father." Anna feels a pang of emotion as Elsa drops brick after brick onto the ground, her voice betraying a quiver in it that Anna has never heard before. "It was stupid of me to think like that. I knew how dangerous my plan was… How dangerous _I _was. Yet I put him in harms way. It was selfish of me."

"I don't think you're selfish," Anna says, quietly.

Elsa stops for a moment and glances at Anna with a sad smile. "No, I suppose you wouldn't." It looks like she wants to say more, but instead she glances at the wrench in Anna's hands. "You're my mechanic now, Anna. If you wouldn't mind…" Elsa steps off the chair, revealing the great hole in the wall that she has left in her wake. Rubble surrounds them. Elsa beckons Anna forward. Kristoff reaches out, as if to stop her, but Anna is already walking towards the blonde girl. The healer. The angel.

When Anna is beside Elsa, she asks, "What do you want me to do?"

Elsa takes Anna's hand into her own. The warmth spreads from Anna's fingers to her toes, speeding her heart and making her head pound. "Insert this chip – it's the last one left needing to be placed. And when the system turns on, open the door with the wrench." Elsa removes her hands, leaving Anna feeling colder than before, and Anna feels the small chip in her fingers. The instructions didn't seem that clear to Anna, but she gives Elsa a sheepish smile and nods.

"Wait!" Kristoff calls out, as Anna steps onto the chair and peers into the hole in the wall. "What are you doing?"

"She's opening the door," Elsa says calmly.

"She's opening… you don't mean… the door to the… outside?" When Elsa nods, Kristoff nearly chokes on air. When he's finished sputtering, he says, "But, that'll kill us all!"

"No," Elsa says sharply. "That's what your King wants you to believe. In reality, that door can be opened and shut like any other. I'll be free to traverse the outside without anyone Underground being the wiser."

"But you'll die out there! There's an eternal storm raging outside!"

"Really? How do you know? Have you _seen _this storm? Have you witnessed the icy wasteland above? For all we know, the storm ended years ago. No one ever checks outside. No one ever opens the door. We remain shut in, scared, dying, and your King does nothing to help you. I'd rather be outside, alone and free, than trapped and herded like cattle."

Kristoff remains silent, but he wears a tortured expression on his face. When he doesn't give an argument back to Elsa, Anna turns back to her task. She reaches inside and slowly pulls herself into the hole. It's a cramped space. She can barely kneel without some part of her touching every part of the wall. And in front of her she notices, with a sharp gasp, is a circular, metal… is it a door? It's nothing like any door Anna has ever seen. But on it she can see the various chips that have been put in place, with a small slot that must fit the last one. She places it in and all of the chips light up at once. It's nearly blinding and she has to turn her face away until her eyes adjust. When they do, she looks back to see a small circular knob that is the perfect fit for her wrench.

With shaking hands, Anna lifts her tool up and locks it into place with the knob. She allows herself a smile when she sees that it fits. She's never done this well at any mechanical job before, even with the most precise of instructions. There's something about Elsa, she muses, that brings out another side of her. And then she turns the wrench, gently screwing the knob… until the knob falls out of the metal circle in the wall. Anna grimaces, and scrambles to pick the knob back up, hoping no one will notice that she might have just broken the door to the outside…

But when she looks back up, she not only gasps, but scrambles backwards and nearly falls out of the hole. Soft hands grip her back, and she realizes that Elsa has caught her. The metal circle that was once guarding the wall seems to have just melted away. Beyond it, Anna can see stairs that ascend so steeply they appear almost vertical. Anna lowers herself out of the hole, with the support of Elsa, and lands with two feet back on the ground. She looks at Elsa with wide eyes and an open mouth, her face a mixture of amazement and fear.

"It… It opened," Anna says. "I actually did it… That's a first."

Elsa giggles, a hand over her mouth. "I knew you could do it."

Kristoff steps forward and peers into the hole. He gives a low whistle, then turns to Elsa. "How did you know the door to the outside world was here?"

Elsa shrugs. "I discovered it over a decade ago… when I lived in the Bricks." Anna's eyes widen even further at that comment. Elsa lived in the Bricks? She must be a few years older than Anna – she probably left the Bricks a year or two before Anna got there. The redhead's heart sinks at the thought. She could have seen little Elsa. She could have been _friends_ with little, orphan Elsa. She would have liked that. And then she wonders about all the other things she still has to learn about the mysterious blonde.

"You're going?" Anna blurts out, imagining Elsa disappearing up that harrowing staircase, where Anna will never see her again.

Elsa nods. "Yes. Thank you for all your help. And I wish I could explain everything to you, but I've wasted enough time as it is – "

"Take me with you," Anna says. It comes out in a whisper, in one breath, but it's fierce and strong regardless.

"What? Anna, no!" Kristoff says.

Elsa gives Anna that sad smile again. "Kai wanted you to come with us, you know. That's why… but I don't think it's a good idea. You belong here, in the Underground."

"I belong with _you_," Anna says. She didn't mean to say it out loud, but now that she has, she can't take it back. "I mean, well, I want to… I-I've, well… I've just, never felt at home here. I've never _had _a home here."

"You have Kristoff," Elsa says, gesturing at him, "you'll be made supervisor now that Kai's gone. You have a life here."

"It's not the one I want," Anna says, determined now.

"Anna… I can't stop you from coming with me, but… I don't even know what's out there. It's dangerous. Your safety's not guaranteed."

"I'll be safe," Anna says, "because I'll be with you. I trust you."

Elsa shakes her head and sighs. "You shouldn't."

"I'm with Elsa on this one," Kristoff says, his voice thick. "Anna, you shouldn't go. At least Elsa has been preparing herself for this. You haven't."

"Kai wanted me to go!" Anna says hotly. "Obviously he thought I had what it takes."

"It's not about having what it takes!" Kristoff argues back. "You're going into the unknown! No one knows what's out there. Maybe no one has what it takes! We've lived in the Underground for fifty years because whatever out there is too harsh to handle – "

A noise – not from any of them. It's yelling. And it's getting closer.

"The Blacks," Elsa says quietly. She turns to Anna and Kristoff. "I'm sorry for everything, but you have to let me go. Whatever you decide to do from here is your decision, come or stay. But if you stay, it's best that you renounce my name and tell them I was holding you hostage." Her eyes move from Kristoff's to Anna's. She stares at her for a moment, as if she doesn't want to say goodbye. Or, at least, Anna hopes that she doesn't want to stay goodbye. That maybe she wants to stay with Anna, that maybe she wants to _be _with Anna… "I… I have to go." Elsa disappears into the hole. Anna feels the warmth in her chest rapidly disappearing.

Anna turns to Kristoff, with wide eyes. "Are… Are you coming?"

He stares at her for a long moment, scrutinizing her with an indecipherable look, before looking at the ground. "I'm sorry, Anna… No." The voices are growing louder. Kristoff lifts Anna up and shoves her into the hole.

"Kristoff!"

"Go! Quickly! I'll keep them off your trail, don't worry about me! Just… Just be safe!"

Anna only has time for one last look into Kristoff's glowing brown eyes before he turns away, and she turns away, and they're both engulfed into the darkness of the paths they've chosen.

* * *

**Oh man, so my writing is starting to slow down, now that I've got a million other priorities. Maybe even once a week was a little ambitious? Regardless, I'll keep trucking along with this story, no matter how long it takes. And, hey, over one hundred followers! That's pretty awesome. Thanks, guys. I appreciate all of you readers. I wouldn't bother writing this story if no one was going to read it, let's be honest here. Anyway, if the story writing is going slow, I'll probably put up a Test side story to give you guys a little something so I can still update on a near-weekly basis. Hopefully that'll appease the masses. In the meantime, be awesome and enjoy life. I'll be checking in on you guys again soon!**


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